Mockingbird
by 00Tyler00
Summary: One-shot, missing scene taking place several days after the events of 'Mother, May I'. Alec comforts a sleeping Brac during a vicious nightmare...sweet, fluffy stuff. Read and Review!


_This is a just a little one-shot that came to mind when I was dabbling with the next episode of the McDowell series. I wanted to include this as a scene but realized it would make the book a little too long. All the same, I found the concept too rich to give it a miss, so I'm posting it here as a sort of 'missing scene' around a few days after the events of 'Mother, May I'. Enjoy, and if you like it, please review! It's not so hard to do, you know! -- Tyler_

"No…_No_! Get off…don't _touch_ me with that shit…holy crap!"

The muffled thrashing and desperate, angry whispers echoing from the other side of the wall had Alec pushing back the covers and running silently, bare feet meeting cold wood, to the door of Brac's bedroom.

Alec twisted the handle and burst into the room, fists clenched tightly and jaw clenched in rage, ready to kick whoever (or whatever) was laying into his son halfway to China and back again. The adrenalin surge that had suddenly rushed through his body was quelled slightly as Alec moved quickly to Brac's bedside after casing the darkened room and assessing it to be empty.

Brac was tossing back and forth violently in his restless sleep, his quickly-growing frame entangled in the bed sheets as he kicked and squirmed in an effort to escape some invisible foe. Strands of honey-blonde hair stuck to his forehead with a terrified sweat, and his eyes were scrunched tightly closed from a face creased with angry fright.

Alec's eyes softened slightly but his face remained set – not with the tense anticipation of a fight, but the worry and concern of seeing his normally unaffected teenage boy curling up in the corner of his bed and thrashing at a nightmare.

Alec's lips thinned into a line and he rested a knee on the bed, reaching forward and touching Brac's arm lightly, "Brac, it's alright…"

Brac jumped at Alec's touch and pulled away violently, "No!" He was all but screaming now as tears began to course from underneath his tightly-closed eyes, "Get away from me! Get away!"

"Brac, wake up!" Alec commanded gently but firmly, eyebrows knit with concern as he moved fully onto the bed and grasped Brac's shoulders, giving them a little shake, "It's Dad! C'mon, look at me, wake up!"

"L'me go" Brac twisted and began to emit shuddering sobs, "Please, please lemme go! I'll do it…whatever you want, I'll do it…jus' don't…"

Alec felt the boy's desperate pleas like a knife in the gut. Whatever White had done to Brac to bring him this low – to the point of begging - the man was going to pay.

"Stop!" Brac was almost squealing by now as his entire body tensed with nightmarish pain, and Alec felt himself begin heat up with deep anxiety as he found himself unable to wake Brac from the fitful dream.

"Fucking stop it!" Tears were streaking down Brac's face and mingling with the beads of sweat glistening there as Alec's attempts to rouse him brought on fresh struggles and shaking, "…don't touch me, you son of a bitch!"

Alec abandoned the rough-housing approach and instead leant up against the headboard, pulling Brac gently onto his lap and pressing his son's head into his chest. "Shh…" He whispered, one arm gripping Brac tight around his shoulder as he stroked his son's hair with the other hand.

Brac was still crying but it was softer, more broken now, and the still-asleep boy gradually ceased struggling, clinging tightly to Alec and calming somewhat at the familiar, comforting warmth and the faint scent of spicy musk.

Alec rubbed the back of Brac's head and rocked him ever so slightly back and forth. At that precise moment, Max poked her head in the door, a worried expression bearing a striking similarity to Alec's own pasted on her features. She appraised the situation in a glance and her eyes, which had been hard, softened and moistened in turn as she caught wind of Brac's muted crying.

Max raised her eyebrows at Alec, and he shook his head and mouthed the words 'I got this one' before turning his attention back to Brac. Max nodded and with a sigh and disappeared, shutting the door softly behind her.

Brac jumped at the faint clicking noise (he had always had uber-sensitive hearing, even for a transgenic) and Alec looked down in surprise at the hand which clutched the shoulder of his shirt tightly.

"Don't let them get me!" Brac whispered in a cracked tone as his eyes opened wide and stared at Alec, bloodshot and welling with fresh tears, "Make them go away, make it stop!"

Alec was taken aback at having been 'caught in the act' of invading Brac's personal space – and not getting a tongue-lashing for it from his son the moment Brac woke up (followed by a reminder that his son 'wasn't a little kid anymore' and 'didn't need his freaking nightlight in a thunderstorm'). Either Brac was still asleep somehow, or something was very seriously wrong.

Alec briefly felt Brac's forehead for signs of a fever then, relieved to find his temperature normal, began to lower Brac slowly onto the bed beside him. Brac, eyes closed once more, protested and rolled over, clinging to Alec's torso tightly.

"I'm not goin' anywhere, Brac." Alec insisted as he eased down onto his back and placed a strong, comforting arm around his son's shoulders as Brac instinctively laid his head on Alec's chest and maintained his grip on the X5's waist.

"Keep me safe…" Brac muttered in-between shuddery breaths as his crying subdued and his face began to soften, "Dad, don't let them…"

"Nobody's gonna hurt you, baby." Alec whispered soothingly as he rubbed circles across his son's shoulder blades, "Not ever again, you hear me?"

Brac uttered something muffled and sniffed, coughing on his tears and nuzzling his head against the warm cotton of Alec's t-shirt. "I shoulda stayed close…shouldna gone with'er…White…" He burst into a fresh round of tears, prompting Alec to roll onto his side and prop himself up on one elbow.

"Shh…Brac, s'okay, baby. It's okay." Alec pulled Brac closer to him and pressed his chin atop the mop of ruffled hair.

"Dad…sing'ta me…"

Alec had to stifle the urge to let out a choke and a '_what_?'. All throughout Brac and Nyx's childhood, it had been Max who had sung them to sleep. Alec had always declared it was a stupid excuse they coughed out in order to stay awake later and told Max that if she had to lullaby their kids, to 'do it when he wasn't around'.

Which was why Max had considered herself thoroughly vindicated when she'd walked in one night on a feverish Nyx curled up in Alec's arm and the sound of soft, rumbled tunes hummed out from the X5's turned back.

Ever since then, the McDowell children had associated Max's melodies with bedtime stories and nightlights, and Alec's rough but equally soothing voice with nightmares, illness and thunderstorms.

Alec hadn't had to (or more like, hadn't been _allowed_ to) sing Brac to sleep since he was ten. That didn't mean he wasn't going to do it now, though.

Clearing his throat softly, Alec looked down at his son and smiled briefly before he started to sing,

"_Hush lil' baby, don't say a word. Papa's gonna buy you a mocking bird_…"

Brac's shoulder's stopped shuddering as his crying finally ceased, but they remained tensed into tight knots and his hands still clutched Alec furiously.

"_And if that mocking bird don't sing, Papa's gonna buy you a diamond ring_…"

Alec ran his fingers through Brac's hair and brushed his thumb across the side of his skull in a gentle message that worked the pressure points to bring relaxation (Alec had studied all forms of 'quirky techniques' for an undercover mission as a masseuse. Damn, that one had come with major perks…).

"_And if that diamond ring turns brass, Papa's gonna buy you a lookin' glass..."_

Alec had no idea where he had heard the tune before. Certainly no-one had stood beside his bed and cooed it out back at Manticore. All he knew was that the lyrics stuck firmly in his mind (though he'd always thought they were a little Hicksville) – and that they worked like a charm.

"_And if that lookin' glass gets broke_, _Papa's gonna buy you billy goat_…"

Alec laughed inwardly at the memory of a seven year-old Nyx bursting into a fresh flood of tears and protesting that she didn't want a billy goat – she wanted a cat. _Sorry, baby, I know…but your brother would either throw it off the roof or drown it like he did with the last one…_

"_And if that billy goat don't pull, Papa's gonna buy you a cart and bull_…"  
_Really?_ Brac's five year-old face, blinking through eyelashes dripping with teardrops, flashed briefly in Alec's memory, _Can I drive it all around TC…and…and can I give Stace a ride in it too?_

"_And if that cart and bull turns over_," Alec was grinning now as he shifted his position slightly to allow for the increasing weight of Brac's frame as his son finally began to relax slightly, and his breathing became deeper, "_Papa's gonna buy you a doggie named Rover_…"

"Stupid fucking Rover…" Brac's muffled grouch of protest made him sound all of five years old again as Alec eased him to rest fully on the bed but didn't release the boy from his embrace.

"Shh…" Alec reprimanded, sliding an arm under Brac's head and wrapping it around his shoulder as he continued, "You were always beggin' me for Rover, c'mon…"

"Mm mm…" Brac mumbled in denial as he kept Alec's shirt tightly in his fist and inhale deeply in his sleep, and Alec rolled his eyes as he continued to sing.

"Yeah whatever, you so were. _And if that dog named Rover don't bark, Papa's gonna buy you a horse and cart…_"

Brac had gone still, and his head now fully dropped and rolled to the side as his breathing evened out and his grip on Alec's shirt loosened,

"_And if that horse and cart fall down_," Alec appraised Brac's sleeping frame, now sprawled out in its usual reckless form of deep, undisturbed repose. Half a smile glimmered across Alec's face for a moment as he eased his arm out from under Brac's head, rising to his knees and pulling the blankets over his son, "_You'll still be the sweetest little baby in town._"

Taking in the sight of the steady rise and fall of Brac's diaphragm, Alec pulled in his lips and hesitated for a moment, before he gave in and bent down, planting a kiss on Brac's forehead.

Brac whined in his sleep and flailed a hand, "Fuck off…" He whispered as his eyebrows knit and he rolled over onto his stomach.

Alec rolled his eyes and resisted the urge to smack Brac's sleep shorts. "Bitch of an ingrate." He grumbled as he headed towards the door, pausing just before he exited to ensure that Brac was, in fact, asleep. A slow smirk spread over the X5's face as he realized Brac had no memory of anything that had just occurred, and patted the doorframe with a wink before he left the room.

_This woulda made for some class blackmail material…if only I was assed to convince Brac that it ever even happened._


End file.
